Tod and Buz 30 Years Later

For Martin Milner and George Maharis, the memories of "Route 66" are still vivid.

George Maharis also appeared in the TV series Naked City and the mini-series "Rich Man, Poor Man" as well as starring in the films Exodus (1960), and The Happening (1967). Maharis starred on tour in the Broadway comedy "6 Rms Riv Vue" and also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions and dinner theaters. While he is best known for his acting abilities, Maharis has also worked as a singer and recorded several albums. Today, Maharis finds time to pursue his great love of painting, which was inspired early in his career by his work with artist Edward Melcarth on murals for New York's Lunt-Fontainne Theatre. He maintains residences in New York and Beverly Hills, Calif. Maharis was interviewed for Corvette Quarterly by Kermit Park in January 1990.

CQ: What did "Route 66" mean to you personally?
Maharis: It was a chance to show something I believed. A chance to express things that I believed from a standpoint of characters that we played, and a philosophy of the way I believed this particular person lived his life. And I thought it was important for me to be able to express that, as opposed to what was going on in other shows.

CQ: Did doing this show affect your life in any way?
Maharis: Absolutely! It gave me national prominence. Before that I was known primarily for Exodus and I had done mostly off-Broadway stage work. Even when I was hired for "Route 66," before Marty Milner came into the picture, I was never considered to be the one who would be popular. I was always considered to be the supporting-actor type and "Route 66" changed all that. I became very well-known and became kind of a cult figure. Nobody expected that, not even me.

CQ: Tod and Buz seem a lot like the real Marty Milner and George Maharis. Is that accurate?
Maharis: I can't speak for Marty, but you usually try to bring an actor into a role who has the style or emotional power you want. Yes, I was very close to Buz. I was a person who was raised in the streets of New York and I was primarily a person who reacted gut, and Marty was educated differently that I was. We were different, totally different. But when I had to leave the show because of a second bout with hepatitis, they put in Glenn Corbett who they figured looked like me. But the problem was that he was closer to Marty Milner. When you put the two of them together, even though one was a fairer person and the other one was a darker person, they were basically both from the same emotional background, in a sense, and it didn't gel.

CQ: Were you and Marty given any freedom in character development?
Maharis: Yes, absolutely. There were times when we had problems with the script. I remember one time at Riverside, where the script read that Marty was racing the Corvette, and I was against it, and I said, "I'm not his mother," because in the script it was making me sound like I was being protective of him. My attitude was that this character would not be protective, he would simply say, "Go for it," and help him. He'd be behind him 100 percent. He'd wish he could do it himself, but he wouldn't be stopping somebody. That's the whole reason to be on the road, to go out and find it. You've got to take chances. You can't pussyfoot around. We went 'round and 'round with it for four or five hours and then they decided that my version was more in line with the character.

CQ: Are you now recognized more for "Route 66" than any other show?
Maharis: Yeah, probably. The younger generation knows me for motion pictures that I've done, whereas people over 40 know me mostly from "Route 66."

CQ: When you see a Corvette on the road, does it generate any special feelings, good or bad?
Maharis: Oh absolutely--mostly good. It's a time gone by and the era that's gone now. It's my history, it's a wonderful portion of my life that I remember. Traveling around making these shows and capturing them on film brings back wonderful memories. I loved it.

CQ: Can you share with us any humorous or unusual occurrences during filming?
Maharis: One of the things that sticks out in my mind is that every year we used to get a new Corvette. We never would explain how these poor kids always had a brand-new Corvette every year, but it was called "dramatic license" and we left it at that. One year we were in Kanab, Utah, and we got a brand-new Corvette. They had rushed to put the car together, to have it ready for this particular show. It had knock-off wire wheels and, apparently, when you put the wheels on, you had to use right threading for the right side and left threading for the left side so the wheels would always be tightening as they were turning. The story I got was that they had put them on in reverse, and the wheels were loosening. We were upon this cliff and one wheels fell off as we were coming around the curve.

CQ: Do you have a favorite episode of "Route 66"? Maharis: Yeah, I think "Even Stones Have Eyes," where I was blind, was always really a nice one for me. The other favorite of mine, simply because my family was in it, was "The Mud Nest." My sister, Pat, and my two brothers, Bob and Paul, were in it, because it was about me trying to find my mother.

CQ: "Star Trek" fans are called "Trekkies", and "Route 66" fans are called "Routies." Did you ever think, in the early days, that "Route 66" would eventually have a cult following like "Star Trek" does?
Maharis: I didn't consciously think about it, but if somebody had suggested that to me, I would not have been surprised. It was such an offbeat show. It had so many elements that the other shows did not have. That's almost a prerequisite for making it a cult thing.

CQ: What do you think about all the renewed interest in "Route 66"?
Maharis: Well, I think it's wonderful. It's nice to know that the theme still works and that they would want to reestablish it.

CQ: Could a new show with a concept like "Route 66" be successful today?
Maharis: Well, that's hard to say. First of all you would have to look at who's going to be in it, what they're going to produce and how they're going to produce it. Then you have to look at the stories they are going to do and who is going to have artistic control over it. It's very difficult to say otherwise. If you're going to have somebody do a knavish imitation, it's not going to work. You have seen where they have taken great motion pictures and remade them and they are totally ineffective, even though they have the script and they knew the way it was cast. It's usually rough going.

Corvette Quarterly
Summer 1990
By Kermit D. Park
Transcribed by L.A. Christie

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